New River Bridge
The last Saturday on the East coast, I took a trip down to Wild and Wonderful West Virgina to explore around Summersville and the New River. Alexis has done this several times already and had the entire itinerary lined out (WITH NO DEVIATIONS!).
First stop was the Summersville Dam, a large earth built dam, that holds back the water flowing into the Gauley River. Fun Fact: Summersville Dam is the largest lake in WV. The US Corps of Engineers broke a long-standing tradition in naming what was called the Summersville Project. Tradition holds that the project will be named after the town nearest the site of construction, unless named for a person (such as Hoover Dam). However, the town of Summersville was not the one nearest the dam. The village of Gad (located near the present-day marina) was literally flooded at the opening of the reservoir. After briefly considering the name “Gad Dam,” it was instead decided to name the project after the next nearest town – Summersville.
Next stop was the New River Bridge. It was hot and sticky out which made for some hazy pictures, but they turned out pretty good. We walked down to view the bridge from the standard viewing platform. Then we drove down the old road that was used to cross the gorge. It wound its way down the hill and under the bridge. We stopped at the Bridge Pillar Rocks and scrambled up to a better viewing platform. Fun Fact: New River Gorge Bridge is the third longest arch bridge in the world and the second highest vehicular bridge in the US. Then we drove down to the old Fayette Station Bridge and did some swimming in the New River with the locals.
After cooling off, we hiked the Kaymoor Mine Trail, which made its way up the canyon to the old Kaymoor Mine Entrances and Coke Ovens. Fun Fact: More pictures of the old mine located here. It was a good long hike, and extra muggy. On the way back we stopped at a couple waterfalls, and I acted naturally as one should when experiencing a watering hole.
